671 – Emperor Tenji of Japan introduces a water clock (clepsydra) called Rokoku. The instrument, which measures time and indicates hours, is placed in the capital of Ōtsu.
1190 – Third Crusade: Frederick I Barbarossa drowns in the river Saleph while leading an army to Jerusalem.
1329 – The Battle of Pelekanon results in a Byzantine defeat by the Ottoman Empire.
1523 – Copenhagen is surrounded by the army of Frederick I of Denmark, as the city will not recognise him as the successor of Christian II of Denmark.
1539 – Council of Trent: Pope Paul III sends out letters to his bishops, delaying the Council due to war and the difficulty bishops had traveling to Venice.
1596 – Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerk discover Bear Island.
1619 – Thirty Years' War: Battle of Záblatí, a turning point in the Bohemian Revolt.
1624 – Signing of the Treaty of Compiègne between France and the Netherlands.
1692 – Salem witch trials: Bridget Bishop is hanged at Gallows Hill near Salem, Massachusetts, for "certaine Detestable Arts called Witchcraft and Sorceries".
1782 – King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (Rama I) of Siam (modern day Thailand) is crowned.
1786 – A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China.
1793 – The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris. A year later, it becomes the first public zoo.
1793 – French Revolution: Following the arrests of Girondin leaders, the Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety installing the revolutionary dictatorship.
1805 – First Barbary War: Yusuf Karamanli signs a treaty ending the hostilities between Tripolitania and the United States.
1829 – The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place on the Thames in London.
1838 – Myall Creek massacre: Twenty-eight Aboriginal Australians are murdered.
1854 – The United States Naval Academy graduates its first class of students.
1861 – American Civil War: Battle of Big Bethel: Confederate troops under John B. Magruder defeat a much larger Union force led by General Ebenezer W. Pierce in Virginia.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Brice's Crossroads: Confederate troops under Nathan Bedford Forrest defeat a much larger Union force led by General Samuel D. Sturgis in Mississippi.
1868 – Mihailo Obrenović III, Prince of Serbia is assassinated.
1871 – Sinmiyangyo: Captain McLane Tilton leads 109 US Marines in a naval attack on Han River forts on Kanghwa Island, Korea.
1878 – League of Prizren is established, to oppose the decisions of the Congress of Berlin and the Treaty of San Stefano, as a consequence of which the Albanian lands in the Balkans were being partitioned and given to the neighbor states of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece.
1886 – Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and burying the famous Pink and White Terraces. Eruptions continue for three months creating a large, 17 km long fissure across the mountain peak.
1898 – Spanish–American War: In the Battle of Guantánamo Bay, U.S. Marines begin the American invasion of Spanish-held Cuba.[2]
1916 – The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire was declared by Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca.
1918 – The Austro-Hungarian battleship SMS Szent István sinks off the Croatian coast after being torpedoed by an ItalianMAS motorboat; the event is recorded by camera from a nearby vessel.
1924 – Fascists kidnap and kill Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti in Rome.
1935 – Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson.
1935 – Chaco War ends: A truce is called between Bolivia and Paraguay who had been fighting since 1932.
1940 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions in his "Stab in the Back" speech at the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
1940 – World War II: Military resistance to the German occupation of Norway ends.
1942 – World War II: The Lidice massacre is perpetrated as a reprisal for the assassination of ObergruppenführerReinhard Heydrich.
1944 – World War II: Six hundred forty-two men, women and children massacred at Oradour-sur-Glane, France.
1944 – World War II: In Distomo, Boeotia, Greece, 218 men, women and children are massacred by German troops.
1944 – In baseball, 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds becomes the youngest player ever in a major-league game.
1945 – Australian Imperial Forces land in Brunei Bay to liberate Brunei.
1957 – John Diefenbaker leads the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to a stunning upset in the 1957 Canadian federal election, ending 22 years of Liberal Party government.
1963 – The Equal Pay Act of 1963, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex, was signed into law by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program.
1964 – United States Senate breaks a 75-day filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, leading to the bill's passage.
1967 – The Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire.
1977 – James Earl Ray escapes from Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee. He is recaptured three days later.
1980 – The African National Congress in South Africa publishes a call to fight from their imprisoned leader Nelson Mandela.
1982 – Lebanon War: The Syrian Arab Army defeats the Israeli Defense Forces in the Battle of Sultan Yacoub.
1990 – British Airways Flight 5390 lands safely at Southampton Airport after a blowout in the cockpit causes the captain to be partially sucked from the cockpit. There are no fatalities.
1991 – Eleven-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard is kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, California; she would remain a captive until 2009.
1994 – China conducts a nuclear test for DF-31 warhead at Area C (Beishan), Lop Nur, its prominence being due to the Cox Report.
1996 – Peace talks begin in Northern Ireland without the participation of Sinn Féin.
1997 – Before fleeing his northern stronghold, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot orders the killing of his defense chief Son Sen and 11 of Sen's family members.
1999 – Kosovo War: NATO suspends its airstrikes after Slobodan Milošević agrees to withdraw Serbian forces from Kosovo.
2001 – Pope John Paul II canonizes Lebanon's first female saint, Saint Rafqa.
2002 – The first direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans is carried out by Kevin Warwick in the United Kingdom.
2003 – The Spirit rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission.
2009 – James Wenneker von Brunn, who was 88-years-old, opened fire inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and fatally shot Museum Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns. Other security guards returned fire, wounding von Brunn, who was apprehended.[4]
2019 – An Agusta A109E Powercrashed onto the AXA Equitable Center on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, which sparked a fire on the top of the building. The pilot of the helicopter was killed.[5]
Births[]
867 – Emperor Uda of Japan (d. 931)
940 – Abu al-Wafa' Buzjani, Persian mathematician and astronomer (d. 998)
1213 – Fakhr-al-Din Iraqi, Persian poet and philosopher (d. 1289)
1465 – Mercurino Gattinara, Italian statesman and jurist (d. 1530)
1513 – Louis, Duke of Montpensier (1561–1582) (d. 1582)
1557 – Leandro Bassano, Italian painter (d. 1622)
1632 – Esprit Fléchier, French bishop and author (d. 1710)
1688 – James Francis Edward Stuart, claimant to the English and Scottish throne (d. 1766)
1713 – Princess Caroline of Great Britain (d. 1757)
1716 – Carl Gustaf Ekeberg, Swedish physician and explorer (d. 1784)
1753 – William Eustis, American physician and politician, 12th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1825)
1804 – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist and herpetologist (d. 1884)
1819 – Gustave Courbet, French-Swiss painter and sculptor (d. 1877)
1825 – Sondre Norheim, Norwegian-American skier (d. 1897)[6]
1832 – Edwin Arnold, English poet and journalist (d. 1904)
1832 – Nicolaus Otto, German engineer (d. 1891)
1832 – Stephen Mosher Wood, American lieutenant and politician (d. 1920)
1835 – Rebecca Latimer Felton, American educator and politician (d. 1930)
1839 – Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg, Danish lawyer and politician, 19th Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1912)
1840 – Theodor Philipsen, Danish painter (d. 1920)
1843 – Heinrich von Herzogenberg, Austrian composer and conductor (d. 1900)
1854 – Sarah Grand, Irish feminist writer (d. 1943)
1859 – Emanuel Nobel, Swedish-Russian businessman (d. 1932)
1862 – Mrs. Leslie Carter, American actress (d. 1937)
1863 – Louis Couperus, Dutch author and poet (d. 1923)
1864 – Ninian Comper, Scottish architect (d. 1960)
1865 – Frederick Cook, American physician and explorer (d. 1940)
1880 – André Derain, French painter and sculptor (d. 1954)
1882 – Nils Økland, Norwegian Esperantist and teacher (d. 1969)
1884 – Leone Sextus Tollemache, English captain (d. 1917)
1886 – Sessue Hayakawa, Japanese actor and producer (d. 1973)
1891 – Al Dubin, Swiss-American songwriter (d. 1945)
1893 – Hattie McDaniel, American actress (d. 1952)
1897 – Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia (d. 1918)
